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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $1,150.00| Rating: 8

Pros:

Nice range, good colour, contrast, silent AF, great tripod collar

Cons:

Not at all sharp at f4

Everyone said this lens was sharp from wide-open. Not my experience. I even sent it to Pentax under warranty for review and they said it was within specifications. The strangest phenomenon – and I tried it with three different bodies with the same effect – it was like it was in a bit of a dream world, with hazyness around the frame outside of a fairly sharp centre. Everything was also quite overexposed. Tried various exposure modes and compensation but generally the same result. If you have a copy that is sharp from f4, then good on you. Enjoy it. Other than this one deal-breaking issue with this copy, it is a really nice lens. From f5 it was sharp and clear all over the frame. I'm not sure from any distance you'd see a lot of difference from the DA55-300, but if blown up or viewed close, there's a clear difference.
Good contrast. Very nice colour. The build is great, the focus is quiet, not super fast but accurate. Note that the focal length (ie. 250mm) changes with your distance from the subject, so it works as a 200mm lens in some instances. Not a big deal. Just know that. The tripod collar implementation is one of the best out there.
I would say in terms of use it's hand-holdable, and you can walk around with it for a while. But it's on the edge of being too heavy to carry around for long periods. I wouldn't carry it on a long hike, but if pictures are your priority it's certainly a bit lighter than a 70-200 f/2.8. Using it handheld, with Pentax in-body shake reduction, it's realistic to use it quite a bit hand-held. 750g feels like a lot less than 1100g though to carry around. Indoors the 50-135 is certainly better, but outdoors, the 60-250 offers really great image quality.
I recommend this lens because I suspect I had a bad copy even though Pentax said it was acceptable. Had I bought it new, I would have exchanged it. But do try a few out, and do get one if you want a really great telelphoto for Pentax.

amnesix

Registered: September 2009Posts: 2

Pentax 60-250mm f/4 ED IF SDM SMC DA* review by amnesix

Review Date: 9/2/2009

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 9